Canada Day
by Sakura Tsukikage
Summary: Canada doesn't like parties much, but he likes this one.


Disclaimer: They're not mine.

Something in honor of Matt's birthday!

**Canada Day**

Matthew doesn't like parties as much as Alfred does. Of course, he honestly thinks it's a sign of mental abnormalities and possible emotional instability to like parties and, really, anything that makes it possible for everyone's eyes to be on you for an extended period of time (because that's what it amounts to) as much as Alfred does.

He isn't much like his brother that way. He doesn't _need_ to go his own way, like Alfred does, doesn't really want to demand the attention of everyone around him the way Alfred does (though admittedly a little more of it would be nice), doesn't have to be in the middle of every single thing that happens the way he often feels like Alfred is determined to be (it's not physically possible, anyway, Matthew thinks).

Still, even though Matthew doesn't usually like parties, with their crowding and noise and everyone wanting something from someone and the craziness that a party attended by nations always devolves into (the kind where you wake up three days later and wonder whose clothes you have on), sometimes it's good to have a day to remember things. That's important, too. And sometimes—even if it's only once a year, it's nice to throw a party, anyway.

Matthew has a lot of things he wants to remember. Even though for him it's more of the little things than the big important life-altering events (because he'll remember those anyway, without having to try). The sound of a song in Huron, the scent of cooking fires. The stories Francis used to tell him. The way Alfred slings his arm around his shoulders and settles onto him like he's never doubted that Matt's strong enough to hold him up. Poppies in a field in Flanders. The way Arthur smiled at him and shook his hand and looked at him with such pride and affection the day the Queen they still share confirmed the Canada Act. The taste of maple syrup and bacon and the adrenaline of a good hockey game and yeah, he knows that's stereotypical, but this kind of party is when you celebrate stereotypes. He wants to remember a lot of other things, too. He never wants to forget how much he loves his land, or his people.

He doesn't love (and flush up warm and feel sentimental and a little silly and know that he's grinning dopily for the entire day) on Canada Day for the same reasons he figures Alfred probably would, and does, on the 4th. He doesn't even mind that Alfred's birthday is only three days later and that he always makes a much bigger fuss. He doesn't even mind how distractedly despondent Arthur always is at his party, rubbing at old war injuries and sniping about Yao and ducking away from Alfred until it's almost like a game of hide-and-seek around Matthew at the barbecue he usually has. But he does love the celebrations themselves, loves each and every one of the people participating, loves Alfred and Arthur and whoever else it is who shows up for coming, even with Arthur's pained grimaces (he always gives Matt a book) and Alfred's wild antics (he always gives Matt something Matt didn't expect and didn't really want; last time it was a new coffee-maker so complicated it was practically science fiction, and Matt still hasn't figured out how it works).

This year Ivan gave him a Russian flag. Matt already knows because he sent it in the mail and it came three days early. (_Cute, Ivan_, he thought with a resigned, sort of pissed-off sigh—_really cute_—and tossed the flag to Kumajirou to play with. Maul, really. Playfully maul.)

Matt smiles into the mirror (his cheeks are little flushed with anticipation, and he already looks like a massive dork, he thinks, with that silly grin on his face, but he doesn't really care), pushes his hair back out of his glasses, and opens his door.

It's going to be a great day. Matt might not like parties all that much. But this party? This one, he loves.

Finis.

Historical/Author's Notes:

1. This one is pretty obvious, but Canada Day is July 1st! It celebrates the anniversary of the July 1, 1867 enactment of the British North America Act of 1867, which united Canada as a single country of four provinces.

2. The Huron, or Wendat, are indigenous inhabitants of Canada.

3. "**In Flanders Fields**" is one of the most famous poems written during World War I and has been called "the most popular poem" produced during that period. It is written in the form of a French rondeau. Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote it on May 3, 1915, after he witnessed the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, only 22 years old, the day before.

4. The Canada Act 1982 was an Act of Parliament assed by the British Parliament that severed all remaining dependence of Canada on the United Kingdom in a process known as "patriation". It contains the text of the Constitution Act, 1982, in both of Canada's official languages, in Schedule B, and a translation of the main body into French in Schedule A, making it the first British Act of Parliament since the Middle Ages to be passed in French. Man. I bet Francis was smug about _that_. From Wikipedia: "While the Canada Act 1982 received Royal Assent on March 29, 1982 in London, it was not until the Queen came to Canada that the Constitution Act, 1982, its Canadian equivalent, was proclaimed by letters patent as a statutory instrument by the Queen during her presence in Canda. The Constitution Act was signed into law by Elizabeth II as Queen of Canada on a rainy April 17, 1982 in Ottawa. Queen Elizabeth remains Queen and Head of State of Canada to this day . . . Canada has full sovereignty as an independent country and the Queen's role is separate from her role as the British monarch."

5. Arthur is rubbing at old war injuries because July 1st is also the anniversary of the first day of the Battle of Albert, which became the Battle of the Somme. The middle day of the middle year of the First World War, it is remembered as the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army when 57,470 men became casualties of which 19,240 were killed or died of wounds.

6. Arthur is sniping at Yao because July 1st is also the anniversay of the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China. I don't think Arthur's really all that bitter at this one, it's just something else when he's really not at his best.

7. Ivan sent Matthew a Russian flag because of this: "In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition that planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925."


End file.
